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Sponsor:  I’d like to thank OpenCage for again being the newsletter sponsor this week. Open data like that returned by the OpenCage Geocoding API offers many benefits compared to traditional proprietary data sources. This means you can use it ANYWHERE, you can store it how you best see fit, and make changes to the data to improve it for yourself. Too often, geocoded results are locked into an ecosystem, and with the speed at which data needs to move around, this makes zero sense. I love what they do and how they do it; if you have a project or a need, contact them as they would love to talk and figure out if OpenCage is for you!

I have been writing a ton about Digital Twins on my blog, but I want to keep this newsletter focused on spatial and geography. So the logical outcome is I have a new newsletter that will focus on Digital Twins and how and why they are so important. It is a weekly newsletter that comes out every Monday, so a perfect way to get your week started. Head on over to Digital Twins Demystified and sign up.

I can’t remember the last time I really enjoyed Twitter. I mean, I’m on it all the time, and I enjoy interacting with everyone, but the feed is mostly junk. Partly this is because Twitter tries to promote the madness that is going on in the world, so we’ll click on it, and partly because 2020 is completely nuts. But there are so many great things I see on Twitter that I enjoy, and it reminds me of when Twitter started. Case in point, the 30 Day Map Challenge. I know those on Twitter have seen it because so many of our friends have taken part. I had the hashtag up on my Twitter client all month, just enjoying map after map. The greatest part of it was it wasn’t just geographers that were doing the work; it was everyone who enjoys maps and mapping.

I do want to highlight the work of David Friggens, who has aggregated all the amazing maps on a website. The amount of work there is beyond brilliant. From small, simple traditional maps to amazing 3D and AR mapping, people have posted on what they are passionate about. I particularly enjoyed the work of Daren Willman of Major League Baseball.

As I mentioned, even though many of the participants of this challenge aren’t cartographers (probably most are not), the visual nature of data and how it is represented gives them so many outlets to show people how they interpret the data. That’s what attracted me to GIS, not so much the data and statistics (as much as I do love that), but the ability to take something so boring as tabular data in a CSV and somehow transform it into an immersive experience that anyone in any language can understand. Many of you did so many great visualizations that I tried to share and like on Twitter and many more that I missed and am only now seeing. Much like the Map Gallery at the Esri UC is a place many go for inspiration, this Twitter tag was that for me. Well done, everyone!